Sunday, October 26, 2008

FOR the skullcapped students of the Darusy Syahadah Islamic school there is no question that the three radical jihadis behind the 2002 Bali bombings are heroes.Sheltering from the equatorial sun on the steps of the school's mosque, the students crowd to offer their approval of bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra.Authorities say the three bombers will face the firing squad by early November for their role in the attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians."They're holy warriors, that's how I respond, they're holy warriors,'' said Sir Muhammad Royhan Syihabuddin Ar-Rohmi, a slight 18-year-old.His friend Nawawi, also 18, leaned forward in agreement: "They are like us, they wanted to do good deeds.''

AMMAN // When Islam Samhan recited his poetry about love, loneliness and life in front of a crowd at a culture club four months ago, he was given a standing ovation. But now, Samhan, 27, who is also a journalist, has been accused of apostasy, a crime that can carry the death sentence in the Islamic world.

Last week, Jordan’s grand mufti, Noah Alqdah Samas, the kingdom’s highest religious authority, called Samhan an enemy of religion for his poetry, some of which included lines comparing his loneliness to that of the prophet Yusuf in the Quran.

Now there are calls for the poet to be detained, his collection of poetry banned and the publishing house penalised. He is even receiving threatening phone calls to his private mobile number.

All this comes as something of a surprise to Samhan, whose book, In a Slim Shadow, published eight months ago, is a collection of his best work over the past decade. The ministry of culture even bought 50 copies.

He dismisses claims that he defamed or insulted the prophet or religion with his poems, but acknowledges that some of his verses may sound similar to the Quran because they were in Arabic.

“The Quran is in Arabic and I am influenced by my language and its rich terminology. Where I grew up, the Quran was sung and its music is still playing in my ears. I have read the Quran, and the Arabic language is that of the Quran.”

Defaming religion in Jordan, as in many Arab and Muslim countries, is a line that cannot be crossed. Although citing Quranic verses in poetry or literature is not forbidden, how they are used is what can cause problems.

In one poem, Samhan has his beloved address God, which his critics say personifies God. In another the woman is talking to God while lying beneath a see-through sheet. Samhan said he was referring to the gods of Greek mythology.

The state-run Press and Publication Department has transferred Samhan’s case to court to decide if his book violates the law.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Attacking American and Israeli websites by hacking and sabotage is allowed under Islamic law and is a form of 'Jihad' or holy war, top Muslim scholars have decreed.

The religious edict (fatwa) issued by a committee from the highest authority in Sunni Islam, Egypt's Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was published on the website of the Islamist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement on Thursday.

"This is considered a type of lawful Jihad that helps Islam by paralysing the information systems used by our enemies for their evil aims," said the fatwa.

"This Jihad is not different from the armed one. In fact, it might be more important if you consider the global dimensions of the Internet.

"Whoever wins this war will become the strongest in the realm of information," the fatwa continued.

The Muslim Brotherhood praised the fatwa, which comes in response to dozens of questions from radicals asking to be allowed to destroy Israeli and United States websites.

Last week, the news website of Dubai-based Arabic TV network al-Arabiya was attacked by suspected Shia hackers, who posted a burning Israeli flag to the site.

Beneath the flag, a message in Arabic and English read: 'Serious Warning - if attacks on Shia websites continue, none of your websites will be safe.'

Sunday, October 19, 2008

On a website devoted to Ramadhan, the Muslim Brotherhood posted a series of articles by Dr. Ahmad 'Abd Al-Khaleq about Al-Walaa Wa'l-Baraa, an Islamic doctrine which, in its fundamentalist interpretation, stipulates absolute allegiance to the community of Muslims and total rejection of non-Muslims and of Muslims who have strayed from the path of Islam.

In his articles, the writer argues that according to this principle, a Muslim can come closer to Allah by hating all non-Muslims - Christians, Jews, atheists, or polytheists - and by waging jihad against them in every possible manner.

Muslim clerics and neighbors have ordered the father of a man who converted to Catholicism to remain confined to his house until retaliatory punishment can be exacted from the convert.

“Are you not ashamed that your son became Christian?” the founder of a mosque here asked Ruhul Amin Khandaker, father of a 32-year-old businessman who went to Australia earlier this year to court a Philippine Catholic woman, converting to her faith in April. “Why did you not sacrifice your son like cattle before telling the news to us?”

Khandaker has become a social outcast whose family lives under threat from fellow Muslims, in violation of Bangladesh’s constitution and international human rights safeguards. His son, Rashidul Amin Khandaker, has applied for protection from Australian immigration officials as he believes police in 88 percent-Muslim Bangladesh would do nothing to protect him from Islamists threatening to kill him.

“They will try to kill me anywhere, any time in Bangladesh, and the police and the authority will not protect me,” Rashidul Khandaker wrote in his plea to Australian authorities. “There are records that show a converted person is not protected by the police, authority and society.”

Khandaker’s life would be in danger if he returned to Bangladesh, said his brother-in-law, identified only as Siddik, adding that “we are also surviving in the society at our own peril.”

Saturday, October 18, 2008

An influential council of Malaysia's state rulers has warned people not to question the supremacy of Islam or the special privileges enjoyed by the country's ethnic Malay majority.

Racial and religious tensions have increased in the past year as minorities have become more vocal in their complaints about an affirmative action program that they say unfairly favors Malays. They also complain that their religious rights are being ignored.

In an unprecedented comment on current affairs, the sultans of nine states did not directly accuse the Chinese and Indian minorities of stoking anti-Malay feelings, but said recent statements and forums "held by certain quarters" had "caused provocation and uneasiness among the people."

Questioning the special position of Malays "can lead to disunity and racial strife that can undermine the peace and harmony," the state rulers said in a statement.

The warning underscores the social tensions in Malaysia, where Muslim Malays are about 60 percent of the nation's 27 million people. Chinese and Indians, who are mostly non-Muslims, comprise a third of the population and friction among the three ethnic groups is always below the surface.

The lengthy statement issued Thursday night follows a two-day meeting of the sultans, known as the Conference of Rulers. The hereditary sultans, who are Muslim Malays, occupy ceremonial offices but wield considerable moral authority among Malays.

"It (the warning) is quite unprecedented and I think it is coming in response to what the country is facing — what the rulers perceive as the fracturing of racial harmony," said Tricia Yeoh of Center for Policy Research think-tank.

Last month, an ethnic Chinese opposition lawmaker was accused by a Malay newspaper of being anti-Islam. She was detained by police for a few days but no charges were filed. In August, lawyers were forced to abandon a conference on religious conversion after protesters stormed the forum.

The statement reiterates the supremacy of Islam, the special position of the Malays and the guarantee to protect minority rights — all enshrined in Malaysia's constitution.

"Non-Malays should not harbour any apprehension or worry over their genuine rights because these rights are guaranteed," the statement said.

Friday, October 17, 2008

An Islamic militant has been convicted for a second time of planning to crash a plane into the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey.Metin Kaplan was also convicted of attempting to overthrow Turkey's secular regime following a retrial in Istanbul Wednesday. His life sentence was reconfirmed.Kaplan was extradited from Germany and sentenced to life in prison in 2005, but an appeals court overturned the decision, citing insufficient investigation and procedural errors.Kaplan had previously lived in Cologne, Germany. He led the group the Caliphate State, which wants to replace Turkey's secular regime with an Islamic state. The group has been outlawed in Germany and Turkey.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Authorities in Bangladesh have been forced to remove new decorations at the international airport in the capital Dhaka after Muslim protesters threatened to destroy them.

Officials had commissioned the country's best-known sculptor, Mrinal Haq, to produce statues of five local folk singers to cheer up the decidedly drab complex.

But thousands of Muslim hardliners say the sculptures erected outside Zia International airport were idols, which are strictly forbidden in Islam, and had threatened to attack the artwork with power tools.

Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer. Alasdair Palmer reports.

A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted in favour of a draft bill, entitled "Islamic Penal Code", which would codify the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith. Women would get life imprisonment. The majority in favour of the new law was overwhelming: 196 votes for, with just seven against.Imposing the death penalty for changing religion blatantly violates one of the most fundamental of all human rights. The right to freedom of religion is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in the European Convention of Human Rights. It is even enshrined as Article 23 of Iran's own constitution, which states that no one may be molested simply for his beliefs.And yet few politicians or clerics in Iran see any contradiction between a law mandating the death penalty for changing religion and Iran's constitution. There has been no public protest in Iran against it.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Their constitution is the Koran. Their flag is emblazoned with the Shahada and two swords. This is Saudi Arabia where Mohammed Prophet of Islam was born and lived.

Foreigners eight times more likely to be executed in Saudi Arabia, report says

Foreigners facing capital punishment in Saudi Arabia are eight times more likely to be put to death than citizens of the Islamic kingdom, a report from Amnesty International has shown.

The vast majority of foreigners charged with crimes meriting the death penalty are relatively impoverished menial labourers, predominantly from third world countries. Members of this group cannot afford the "diya" or blood money payments to a victim's relative that can win clemency from the Shariah system of Islamic justice.Although foreigners make up just one quarter of the oil rich state's population, Amnesty reported they made up the majority of all those sent to death row. Its report revealed that at least 1,695 executions were carried out between 1985 and May 2008, with the number of non-nationals totalling 830, compared with 809 local citizens. It was impossible to ascertain the nationality of the remaining 56.But it is in the number of reprieves that the greatest disparity lies. Amnesty claimed that a pardon is granted in one in every four capital cases involving a Saudi citizen but only one in 30 of each foreign case.Saudi Arabia executed 78 people in the first eight months of this year, a figure in line with the 2007 total of 158."Poor foreign workers are literally paying with their lives when accused of capital crimes in Saudi Arabia," said Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen. "Frequently bamboozled by secretive and unfair trials conducted in a language they don't even understand, they go to their deaths with little assistance from their home countries and little mercy from a grossly unfair Saudi justice system. The use of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia is a disgrace. The Kingdom should introduce a moratorium immediately."

Try venturing into a “Muslim area” in Birmingham, UK, and you could just have a hilarious time being beaten up – or at least being told to get lost by a policeman wannabe who, in this case, happens to be Muslim.

There are Muslim comedians who take the piss out of all sorts of things – including Muslims. It’s called comedy. There’s this thing called irony. There’s satire. Only a bone-headed primitive religion would object.

Often, Muslims – the more enlightened ones, and there are many – don’t object. Often, it’s left to the indigenous politicians and civil servants and assorted do-gooders to prevent you from “going there”.

Well, there’s an interesting piece in the UK's Independent on Sunday about it, which is worth reading. In it, David Lister argues, “The irony is that in [making Muslims a comedy no-go area], they really are insulting Muslims, the hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Britain who are perfectly capable of laughing at themselves, and would resent the patronising protection supposedly offered them by the comedy police.”

He was commenting on the fact that the comedian Harry Enfield had been told to leave alone a Muslim hoody character he had developed.

The production company Tiger Aspect, which makes Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s show Harry and Paul, confirmed that, “Obviously, it is a sensitive area. It [Enfield’s character] never made it further than the page. This was a decision taken collectively by key members of the production team.”

Back in April, I seem to remember, another comedian and writer, Ben Elton, was complaining of how Islam has become a no-go zone for comedians.

Quite simply, no religion should be exempt. The more they complain about it, the more the urine should be extracted, in huge quantities. If they shut up, they’ll take their share of piss-take with the rest – and not just religions, but politicians, celebs and just about anyone or anything in the public eye.

Good comedy helps us to see things in a different light. That makes it an art form. Anything that takes the piss for the sake of being cruel is not really comedy. Our laughter, if indeed it’s generated from such material, is not healthy laughter. It’s smutty laughter.

However, it shouldn’t be censored. In the marketplace of public performance, there is a mechanism. Crap comedy can be ridiculed by those whose job it is to do that: critics and other commentators.

A 12-year-old cancer-stricken Iranian boy arrived at an Israeli hospital on Friday for emergency treatment on his brain tumor.

The boy - who was identified only as Roy, to protect his privacy - was wheeled on a stretcher into the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, after treatments in Iran and Turkey failed. His face was puffy, apparently due to the drugs administered to ease his pain.

Israel granted the child a special permit to enter the country and he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Friday. The rare arrangement was mediated by an Israeli businessman of Iranian origin. The boy was accompanied to the hospital by his father and veiled mother, who were also granted special entry permits into Israel.

Iran and Israel are bitter enemies and have no formal relations. Iran's president has denied the Holocaust and repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Sheba CEO Zeev Rotstein said it wasn't the first time Israeli doctors have treated children from adversarial states.

"We hope that with the love and affection we give these kids we are paving the way for at least some understanding between people," he said. "We can't change the politics. We are not politicians. We do this because we feel it is our job."

Israel is home to world-class hospitals and state-of-the-art medical technology.

Dr. Amos Toren, head of Sheba's Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department, said his initial diagnosis was that the boy's year- old growth was the most aggressive tumor that exists among brain tumors.

"He is conscious and he can smile but it is hard," he said. "We will give him the most modern treatment possible and maybe we will be able to help him."

Rotstein said the child had been operated on before and may need another procedure in Israel. "There are very limited things you can do," he said. "But if this kid has any chance, it is here."

He said the hospital kept the identities of patients from countries hostile to Israel secret, so that they would not face danger upon their return home. Iran and several other Middle East countries oppose any type of normalization with Israel.

Rotstein said he hoped treatments, like those of Roy, would help break down some of those barriers.

"As far as we are concerned, we are not involved in politics," he said. "He is from a country that doesn't really like our existence here, but I think part of our job is to prove to countries like Iran that we are here to help the regular people."

Sunday, October 12, 2008

10/10/2008 (Orakzai, Pakistan) - A Fedayeen bomber sends over forty souls to Allah at a tribal meeting.10/10/2008 (Khost, Afghanistan) - Two people are blown up by a Taliban suicide bomber.10/9/2008 (Bajaur, Pakistan) - Four tribal elders are abducted and beheaded in the name of Allah.10/9/2008 (Uruzgan, Afghanistan) - Women and children are among the casualties during a shooting attack by religious extremists.10/9/2008 (Udhaim, Iraq) - Two children are among four family members wiped out by Jihadi bombers.10/9/2008 (Tal Afar, Iraq) - Mujahideen bomb a restaurant, killing two patrons.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Muslim World’s Vice Squads Hunt ‘Jewish’ Barbie Dolls - And just when the Muslim world is starting get control of its Barbie doll problem, along comes Superman. . .

When Iranian toy seller Masoumeh Rahimi thinks of Barbie and Ken dolls, she thinks of heavy artillery — only worse. “I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile,” Ms. Rahmi told the BBC back in 2002. In April 2008, Iran’s top prosecutor and religious cleric, Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi, upped the anti-Barbie campaign by calling for a ban on the sale of all Barbie dolls from the country. “Barbie is an emissary of nudity and promotes moral corruption,” wrote the hardliner newspaper Kahyan.Barbie and Ken have been picked on by Islamic leaders for years, since Saudi Arabia announced it was banning the sale of Barbie from the kingdom in September 2003, stating on its official website:

Jewish Barbie dolls, with their naked clothing, lewd positions, and different samples and accessories, are symbols of decadence of the perverted West. Let us recognize their danger and worry.

The ban-Barbie effort was huge. The religious police, or Mutaween, hung colorful posters outlawing “Jewish Barbie dolls” in schools and hospitals across the country. For a while, photos of confiscated Barbie dolls were posted on the government website.The anti-Semitic tirade came after the Mutaween learned that Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, was Jewish — and that the American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and U.S. Business Hall of Famer had named the dolls after her two Jewish children, Barbie and Ken Handler.But it appears not all religious clerics are doing their homework about which Jew created what incredibly popular icon. Last summer, Hassan Nasrallah — the leader of the terrorist organization Hezbollah — appeared proudly depicted as Superman in the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Ayyam. In the cartoon, Nasrallah was pictured pulling back his religious robes, a la Clark Kent, to reveal a Superman suit underneath. Superman is Lebanon’s most popular superhero. Many teenagers believe him to be Lebanese because of his dark, swarthy looks. But if Barbie is “Jewish,” so is Superman; he was created by two Jews named Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, in 1932..........With Barbie banned first from Saudi Arabia and now from Iran, one wonders who or what is getting the hatchet next.Read the complete article here

Thursday, October 09, 2008

A Muhammad look-a-like competition is slated to take place during the Frankfurt Book Fair, and it has already offended and outraged people far beyond Germany. But Titanic, the monthly satirical magazine behind the inflamatory event, insists: "It will be a blast."

Titanic, the German satire magazine, is never far from polemics, but its latest action takes its reputation for controversy to new heights: It is staging a Muhammad look-a-like competition -- and has invited the Turkish President Abdullah Gül to take part.

Turkish newspapers were quick to react to the "unbelievable competition," which is to be held parallel to the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Turkey will be the guest country this year. The popular Turkish daily Sabah drew parallels with the infamous Muhammad cartoons published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005, which sparked death threats and protests across the Muslim world, with some escalating into violence.

According to its Web site, however, Titanic is going ahead with its look-alike contest: "Come along to the most dangerous event of the Frankfurt Book Fair ... It will be a blast," it wrote. The competition, to be held on Oct. 18, is set to take place on a specially built stage at the state-funded Caricatura Museum in Frankfurt. Achim Frenz, head of the museum, said it was designed to test of the boundaries of "jokes and fun." The museum's Web site comments: "Of course it is a sin to represent the prophet. For this reason, we are trying to do something exceptional."Nine participants are expected to take part, including Osman Engin, a Turkish-German satirist, and Hans Zippert, a prominent columnist for the conservative daily Die Welt. During the competition there will be readings from the Koran and participants will be encouraged to mimic the Muslim prophet. "Of course you can never create a picture of the prophet," the magazine claims in a flyer advertising the event, "but you can try to emulate him."

Titanic, the German equivalent of Britain's Private Eye, has a track record of inflamatory stunts, including hoax bribery faxes sent in 2000 to delegates of the FIFA soccer world championship committee, urging them to support the German bid for the 2006 World Cup. In return for their votes, Titanic offered gifts of a cuckoo clock and Black Forest ham. Titanic also founded its own political party, Die Partei (the party), which lists the rebuilding of the Berlin Wall as one of its goals.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Dr. Ahmad Al-Muzain: The Prophet Muhammad said that there is no need to wash off the urine of the male infant. Only the urine of the female infant should be washed. In the case of the urine of the male infant, it is enough to sprinkle water lightly over it. From this, the religious scholars have concluded that the urine of the male is less impure than the urine of the female. This gives rise to many questions: Why is there a distinction between the urine of the male and the female? What is the wisdom in this? Is this, as some Orientalists claim, discrimination against the female, even in infancy? God forbid that this is true.[...]In order to prove the wisdom behind this, scientists from an Iraqi university have conducted a unique experiment. Of course, this experiment was supervised by a professor from the International Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and the Sunna.[...]This experiment proved that a type of bacteria known as E. coli - and you can see a picture of this bacteria behind me... We found this type of bacteria in the urine culture of both male and female infants. What was strange, however, was that the urine of the male infant contained much fewer bacteria than that of the female.[...]This proves unequivocally that this is the true religion, and that this knowledge was conveyed to the Prophet by Allah..............................................................

Above excerpts are from a program featuring Dr. Ahmad Al-Muzain, a Palestinian expert on Koranic science, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 3, 2008:

Monday, October 06, 2008

A young girl in Saudi Arabia was brutally executed by her Muslim father this week after he learned his daughter had converted to Christianity.

Middle East business news website Zawya.com reported that the man, who is a prominent member of a "virtue committee," first cut out his daughter's tongue and held a one-sided religious debate with her. He then burned his daughter alive.

Observant Muslims hold that their Prophet Mohammed taught that Muslims who convert to any other religion must be killed, often in extremely brutal fashion.

Just recently, a high ranking Pakistani cleric, one Munib ur-Rehmen, asserted that “Islam does not allow anybody to take lives of innocent people by any means.” However, when he was grand mufti, two years earlier, he also said that “truly Islamic” states must kill the apostate from Islam. Considering his former statement, that Islam forbids the taking of “innocent” lives, has Munib been caught fibbing? Either way, this anecdote occasions the question: who is “innocent” in Islam?Whereas other Muslims may shy away from this question, opting for the naïve Westerner to simply assume that “innocence” in Islam is akin to the liberal West’s notions of “innocence,” al-Qaeda—which seems to be supported by nearly half of the Muslim world—has been only to happy to clarify this matter.Back in December, the terrorist organization’s primary media conduit, al-Sahab (the “clouds”) announced that al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman Zawahiri, would be taking questions from the public and that he would “respond as soon as possible.”Then, a few months later in April, according to the Associated Press, Zawahiri released a 90 minute audio tape, “billed as the first installment of answers to the more than 900 questions submitted on extremist Internet sites by al-Qaida supporters, critics and journalists.”In response to a question that suggested al-Qaeda was responsible for the deaths of innocents in Baghdad, Morocco, and Algeria—Muslim areas where countless terrorist attacks in the name of al-Qaeda still occur daily—Zawahiri adamantly maintained that “We haven’t killed innocents,” not in any of those regions mentioned; “nor,” added Zawahari, “anywhere else”—which obviously includes 9/11, the London and Madrid bombings, and the rest.Was Zawahiri being facetious, or does he truly deem all those killed in the aforementioned attacks as not “innocent”—that is, guilty?As for Western infidels, Osama bin Laden himself has announced on various occasions that, since America is a democracy, and thus responsible for its government (which is always portrayed as one of the greatest enemies of Islam), “Every American man is an enemy—whether he fights us directly or pays his taxes,” (The Al Qaeda Reader, 281). Accordingly, al-Qaeda issued its famous fatwa in 1998 concluding that “The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilian and military—is an individual obligation incumbent upon every Muslim who can do it and in any country” (AQR, 13).What of women and children? What of fellow Muslims? Surely all these are innocent? In fact, Zawahiri, in one of his major treatises written for Muslim-eyes only, “Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Killing of Innocents” (see AQR,141-171), demonstrates the opposite. After quoting several anecdotes from authoritative hadith and sira sources documenting Muhammad legitimizing haphazard attacks against infidel strongholds—including by utilizing catapults (al-manjonil) and fire—even though women and children were known to be sheltered there, Zawahiri quotes the observations of a prominent exegete: “It is well known that whoever follows such a course, bombarding infidels, will inevitably hit their women and children, who are otherwise forbidden from being killed. Likewise, the same goes if Muslims are among them. It is compulsory that this [the possibility of hitting women, children, and Muslims] not dissuade the launching of an incursion against them… even if one dreads hitting another Muslim” (AQR,165).

Saturday, October 04, 2008

In Rita’s* case, a close male relative attempted to kill her in a brutal attack. In response, the country’s 12 governors have been given the power to lock up the innocent victims, rather than go after the would-be perpetrators.

Yet the girls are clear examples of previous long-term detention and thanks to Mizan, a women’s advocacy group, they’ve finally been released. When Bou Melhem meets them they’re in a half-way house, very soon to move into their own accommodation.

It’s the only program of its type operating in the Middle East and under it, the women will assume new identities and re-locate far from their families.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Though the customary burkas worn by some women cover all of the body except for the eyes, some imams have decried the garment for showing too much!

They have ruled that in order to prevent "immodesty" and winking, women will have to wear new burkas that cover all but one eye.

"This way, if they wink, it will look like a blink," the Imams have declared.

"A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.The question of how much of her face a woman should cover is a controversial topic in many Muslim societies.The niqab is more common in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but women in much of the Muslim Middle East wear a headscarf which covers only their hair.Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd. "

O Allah! I ask You for success concerning my destiny, and feast with the martyr, and enjoyment with fortunate people, and the companionship of Apostles, and victory over my enemies; for it is You who listens to the Prayer

اللهم أصلح أمة محمد اللهم فرج عن أمة محمد أللهم ارحم أمة محمد'Allahumma aslih Ummata Muhammad. Allahumma farrij 'an Ummati Muhammad. Allahumma Rham Ummata Muhammad [sallAllahu alayhi wasalam]O Allah! Improve (help) the state of the Ummah of Muhammad. O Allah! Grant ease to the Ummah of Muhammad. O Allah! Have mercy on the Ummah of Muhammad.Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, one of the righteous imams of the early Muslims (salaf), said, "Whoever says, (the above) ten times every day will be written down as one of the highest of elect believers (abdal)." [Abu Nu'aym, Hilyat al-Awliya, 8.366]

These blogger are asking you to do Ishthikharah Prayer after deciding on your choice of presidential candidate.

What I am proposing is that you do the Ishthikharah Prayer and the above dua's. Remember to leave the house with a right foot step first. When they hand your ballot, receive it with your right hand, close your eyes and make your mark.

Do not waste your time energy and brainpower trying to decide which candidate.

Remember - Allah Subhaanahoo Watha aala (SWT) knows best....

One of Allah's commands expressed to Muslims through the Qur'an is for them to call out to it:"And your Lord says: "Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer)!"

Suicide bombers struck Shiite worshippers gathering in two mosques celebrating the end of the Ramadan fasting month in Baghdad on Thursday, killing and injuring more than 70 people, a government security source said.A suicide car bomber killed nine and wounded 30 at a Shiite assembly hall in the Zafaraniya district, while a teenage boy blew himself up at a mosque in New Baghdad, killing 12 and wounding 26, the source added.Both districts are mainly-Shiite areas in the east of the capital.In the Zafaraniya strike, the bomber drove a Mercedes into an Iraqi police vehicle guarding a well-protected area around the mosque and triggered the explosion, the source said.In New Baghdad, a poor Shiite suburb of high-rise apartments, witnesses described the bomber as a boy of about 14 years old. He stepped into a crowd wearing an explosive belt and blew himself up.

..Martin Rynja, who runs Gibson Square, the publishing company behind the controversial novel The Jewel of Medina, a fictional account of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's child bride by American journalist Sherry Jones, has been forced into hiding after a foiled firebomb attack on his house at the weekend.

A spokesman for Omar Bakri (pictured), the right-wing Muslin cleric, warned of more trouble over the book, which includes an account of the night the prophet consummates his marriage, claiming it was just "the thin end of the wedge". Meanwhile, a member of Bakri's own family, his daughter Yasmin Fostok, has also been forced to seek police protection after it was disclosed she was working as a pole-dancer and received a number of threats from Islamic extremists, presumably her father's supporters.

It was further revealed at the weekend that Bakri gave £4,000 to Yasmin, 27, so she could have a breast enhancement operation to help her with her chosen career. However, Bakri, who praised the September 11 attacks and who left Britain for Lebanon after the July 2005 London bombers, is now saying Fostok is not his daughter but an impostor being used to discredit him. It has certainly got him seething. He says that Britian will "pay a heavy price" for the disclosures.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Hardly a week goes by without front-page news of Muslims dying somewhere in the world in a violent way. Despite all the media attention, there is little understanding among non-Muslims of Islamic views of death and the afterlife.

Everyone knows, of course, that after death martyrs go straight to the Garden of Eden, where they recline on couches, savor meats and fruits and enjoy the company of dark-eyed houris while listening to the sound of flowing rivers.

But what happens to the vast majority of Muslims, those who do not die as martyrs?According to Islamic doctrine, between the moment of death and the burial ceremony, the spirit of a deceased Muslim takes a quick journey to Heaven and Hell, where it beholds visions of the bliss and torture awaiting humanity at the end of days.

By the time corpse handlers are ready to wash the body, the spirit returns to earth to observe the preparations for burial and to accompany the procession toward the cemetery. But then, before earth is piled upon the freshly dug grave, an unusual reunion takes place: The spirit returns to dwell within the body.

In the grave, the deceased Muslim - this composite of spirit and corpse - encounters two terrifying angels, Munkar and Nakir, recognized by their bluish faces, their huge teeth and their wild hair.

These angels carry out a trial to probe the soundness of a Muslim's faith. If the dead Muslim answers their questions convincingly and if he has no sin on record, then the grave is transformed into a luxurious space that makes bearable the long wait until the final judgment.But if a Muslim's faith is imperfect or if he has sinned during life by, for example, failing repeatedly to undertake purity rituals before prayer, then the grave is transformed into an oppressive, constricting space.

The earth begins to weigh down heavily upon the sentient corpse, until the rib cage collapses; worms begin to nibble away at the flesh, causing horrible pain.

This torture does not continue indefinitely. It occurs intermittently and ends at the very latest with the resurrection - when God may well forgive Muslims who have endured the punishment.Surely this violence sounds medieval. Belief in "the torture of the grave" indeed stretches way back in history. It appears in eighth-century epitaphs and in early Islamic traditions, which elevated this belief to the status of dogma.

But pious Muslims today continue to adhere to this belief. In invocations, funeral prayers, sermons, and popular literature, Muslims are frequently reminded to heed this punishment.Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of them take it seriously. The psychologist Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek, who has studied anxieties about death among Arab youth, has found that preoccupation with the torture of the grave remains acute.

The Egyptians and Kuwaitis he polled worried about this torture more than they feared losing a dear relative or succumbing to a serious, fatal disease.

Recently, an Islamist Web site posted a picture of an 18-year-old man exhumed by the order of his father. Only three hours had passed since his burial, but already his corpse appeared aged and bruised. Scientists, according to the story, affirmed that this was caused by the torture of the grave; and the father explained that his son had been a sinner.

Many Muslims commenting on the picture took it as a sign from God to stop sinning and as a reminder to pray assiduously for relief from the punishment of the tomb. Several doubted the reality of the picture, prompting the author of the Web site to remove the posting and to apologize for it. But even a skeptic who challenged the "scientific" evidence professed in this public forum his belief in the reality of the torture of the grave.

Muslims can escape the torture of the grave by dying as martyrs. In Islam the category of martyr does not belong exclusively to those who die fighting in God's path. According to Islamic tradition, Muslims who die in a fire, by drowning, in the collapse of a building or in some other way involving great physical suffering merit the rank of martyrs in the afterlife.

This means that immediately after death, their spirits do not return to dwell within mutilated or burned corpses. Instead they enter the Garden of Eden, where they receive new bodies, perfectly reformed, so as to enjoy the rewards of martyrdom until the resurrection. Those who have lost a relative in a violent and shocking death - in the bombings in Baghdad, for instance - may find some consolation in this belief.

Mohammed, along with Buraq and Gabriel, visit Hell, and see a demon punishing "shameless women" who had exposed their hair to strangers. For this crime of inciting lust in men, the women are strung up by their hair and burned for eternity. Persian, 15th century.

Mohammed sees women strung up by hooks thrust through their tongues by a green demon. Their crimes were to "mock" their husbands and to leave their homes without permission. Persian, 15th century. Mohammed sees a red demon that is torturing women by hanging them up by hooks through their breasts, as they are engulfed in flames. The women are being punished for giving birth to illegitimate children whom they falsely claimed were fathered by their husbands. Persian, 15th century.

..behind the facade of fireworks, super-bike displays and general self-satisfaction, the real truth of Malaysia's descent into an intolerance never experienced under British rule remains like a shameful scar which the government does not want even its own people to see.

Malaysia, which boasts proudly that it is a "moderate Muslim country" is nothing of the sort. It enforces Islam in a racially-based apartheid which ensures that no ethnic Malay can avoid being labelled as a Muslim from the age of 12 onwards, and refuses to allow Muslims to convert to other faiths. And while Muslims are allowed to convert others, the government is pressuring all 13 states in the nation to enforce laws preventing anyone from attempting to convert a Muslim.

Many of Malaysia's states have adopted the Control and Restriction Bill, which gives a fine of 10,000 ringit ($2,653) or imprisonment for up to one year for "persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion."

Two hundred and twenty-five women have been killed in incidents of Karo Kari (honour killing) in the past six months across Pakistan, according to a survey conducted by the Aurat Foundation, BBC Urdu reported on Friday.

The organisation said that though honour killing has different names in different areas of Pakistan, the traditions remain the same across the country. Malik Asghar of the Aurat Foundation said that the survey covered details of women killed for honour between January and June 2008.

According to the survey, the number of women murdered during the six months for reasons other than honour was 722. The survey revealed that only two accused in Karo Kari cases registered during the last six months had been sentenced while the rest were pending in courts.

Last month he ratified the new constitution of the "100% Islamic" country where he had been head of state for nearly three decades. In 1964 he graduated as the top pupil in Islamic law from Sunni Islam’s premier centre of indoctrination, the al-Azhar medrassa in Cairo, Egypt. In 1965 he fell foul with his country by protesting its recognition of the State of Israel and exiled himself to Nigeria to teach Islamic law.

After returning home some years earlier, in 1978 he was elected to the presidency of the republic on an Islamic platform. From the early 1980s he had presided over the establishment of scores of Islamic indoctrination centres and he was often invited to address international gatherings of top mullahs. Under his rule, the religion of peace was able to trample on centuries of proud Maldive tradition by coercing thousands of women into wearing the burqa veil in a climate of 99 percent humidity and 30 degree heat. He withdrew recognition from the State of Israel and established "diplomatic relations" with the PLO.

He ordered the censoring of the images of Pope John Paul II and later, Pope Benedict XVI from the Maldive print and electronic media out of fear that the very sight of the Roman Pontiff would result in mass conversion to Christianity and complete annihilation of the religion of peace in the Maldives. At his orders the Maldive police regularly confiscate and incinerate Bibles. Admittedly he accepted a knighthood of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George from the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, but a little old nun who was travelling in transit through Malé airport once had her crucifix ripped off her neck by his officials. He unsuccessfully petitioned the Government of the Seychelles to ban the broadcast of a Divehi language Evangelical radio programme out of that country.

The constitution that he signed into law last month declared for the first time in the history of his country, albeit rather ambiguously, that every citizen of his Indian Ocean archipelago shall be a Muslim.

And yet in spite of all this, as I write, this man is on trial in the very Supreme Court that he had established just days before. The charge is apostasy. Islamic mullahs are claiming that President of the Republic, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is not a Muslim. They are petitioning the Supreme Court for his excommunication from the religion of peace. The mullahs who backed the constitutional clause that says that every Maldivian shall be a Muslim are now saying that they were wrong all the time. One Maldivian, they insist, is definitely an infidel. The fastest growing religion in the world has made an exception and wants this “infidel” out of its fold.

Mr. Gayoom's response to the accusation, apparently, was brief, according to one visitor to this site. “Everyone who says the shahadah [the Mohamedan oath of allegiance] is a Muslim” said the president of the republic, with a mischievous grin, and continued: “therefore I am one”. This is slightly less pointed than the response that my paternal uncle made when faced with the same accusation in the 1940s. The late Uthuruganduvaru Manippulu (1904– 1965) said “I know I am a Muslim because my mother told me so and, to my knowledge, my mother never lies”.

One of the charges Mr. Gayoom faces is his failure to coerce the last few patriotic women, including his wife and daughters, into wearing the burqa veil. Another of the charges brought against this eminently distinguished mullah as proof of his apostasy seems to be specifically designed for the benefit of useful idiots in the West: Mr. Gayoom also stands accused of denying the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!

Iran's parliament has passed the death penalty for apostasy, which is viewed in that country as converting to any other faith than Islam.

Thousands of Iranians have been converting to Christianity, and the underground church is thriving, according to reports. But other Iranians are returning to Zoroastrianism, which was the dominant religion in Iran at one time. Jonathan Rocho, with International Christian Concern (ICC), explains.

"We, as a Christian organization, are very much concerned about this because this means many Christians who converted from Islam are going to face death, simply because of their decision to follow Jesus Christ," Rocho laments.

He says Iranians are questioning the Muslim faith after living under the regime, which has been dominated by the religion since the revolution in the 1970s. "They have not seen any change in their lives," Rocho adds. "There is even more repression, more problems going on in the country, so they are very much confused about the Islamic faith."

Already, two Christian converts accused of apostasy have been given the death penalty. Since Iran does not easily succumb to international pressure, Rocho urges people to pray.

"The strongest proof of real, extremely despotic power in Islam is the fact that it has been able to invalidate, in such large measure, the entire history (customs, religion, previous way of looking at things, earlier imagination) of the peoples converted to it. It accomplished this only by instilling into them a new religious arrogance which was stronger than everything and induced them to be ashamed of their past."

"Is the fate of gradually becoming an Arab nation the Maldive Islanders' only option?This is the Maldivian dilemma since they made the decision to accept the Arabs as their undisputed cultural masters and began to sever their links with their own past.Nowadays Maldivians are culturally restless people who can never be at ease.The intense indoctrination of the 1980s and 90s, when Islamization was imposed on the islands at a much higher gear than at any time in the nation's history, has made Maldivians feel uncozy in their own country.The changes brought about have been of such magnitude and in such a short time, that there is now a whole young generation of Divehi people who, having not known how things were previously, take for granted that their home nation has always been so orthodox and impersonal."

- Xavier Romero-Frias in THE MALDIVE ISLANDERS, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom

"The Islamic conquerors took everything from the newly conquered: money, language, culture, traditions, wives, children, values. Everything. The nature of Islam is that it replaces cultures wherever it gets a foothold."

150 Maldivian Adulteresses To Be Flogged

Stop the Islamic religious duty of Fuc-Kendun in Maldives!

When a husband pronounced his wife divorce three times “thrice divorced” and wants to remarry her, he cannot do it lawfully until he pays another man “Al Mohalil”(which means the legalizer) who marries this thrice divorced woman and (had sexual intercourse or consummating the marriage with her) and then dismisses her so that she may lawfully marry her former husband.

In Quran sura al-Baqara 2:230 says,”…So if a husband divorced his wife he cannot after that remarry her until after she has married another husband, and he has divorced her, in that case there is no blame on either of them if they reunite…”

Abu Dawud (2142) - "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife."

ISLAMIC FUK-KENDUN IS A MORAL AND PHYSICAL RAPE.

In Islam a husband can reunite with his wife after divorcing her under this condition: When a woman is divorced irrevocably, she can not return to her husband until she marries (including having sexual intercourse) with another man. "Narrated Aisha: The wife of Rifaa Al-Qurazi came to Allah's Apostle and said, 'O Allah's Apostle, Rifaa divorced me irrevocably. After him I married Abdur-Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi who proved to be impotent.' Allah's Apostle said to her, 'Perhaps you want to return to Rifaa? Nay (You cannot return to Rifaa ) until you and Abdur-Rahman (the impotent man) engage in sexual intercourse! '" Vol. 7:186

The making of the ancient Dhivehi island people into semi-Arab Muslims

How Dhivehi minds are groomed to become lifelong zombies that they can't apply minimum logic and reason to discover numerous obvious errors and contradictions in the Quran and Hadith and that they consider the most horrendous, unethical and barbarous actions of Muhammad as acts of great morality and humanity...

Did you know ?

Until about 100 years ago in Divehi we didn't say "salaan kurun"?We said Namaskaarakurun or Swasti(Swasti = Peace)

men & women are equal in Islam?

Women cannot touch the Koran during certain days because they are unclean

Dhivehistanis want to conquer the world for Allah

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." -- Koran 8:60

Muslim Arab missionaries and Dhivehi collaborateurs

Muslims cite Islamic taboos and Koranic injections as more important than freedom of thinking. Freedom of expression is and always has been subject to Islamic taboos. Islamic taboos exist to keep Muslims from thinking independently and these taboos are enforced by Mullahs and Islamic rulers. Those who oppose are silenced or beheaded. Public expression against Mohammed or Allah will be labeled as apostate and those dissenters will be severely punished. Strict censorship is imposed on TV, film, magazines and newspapers by religious bodies and by the government.

"If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose". -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect, and author (1743-1826)

“If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed”. - Umar the Caliph of Islam after the conquest of Alexandria in 641, ordered the great library to be destroyed.

The books were then used to heat the furnaces of the numerous bath-houses of the city.

Maldives Minister of Islamic Affairs says

"Shari’ah law ultimately requires the killing of those who leave Islam."

All smiles after being found guilty of massacring 52 Hindus in a 2003 bombing, Hanif Anees is also quite dedicated to his religion. (Care to guess which one?)

Maldives Constitution: No Citizenship for non-Muslims

Article 9, Section D : “a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.”

By denying citizenship to some people on the basis of their religion, the country is violating religious minorities’ freedom of worship.

“This denial of citizenship to non-Muslims is an extraordinarily harsh measure which places the Maldives among the worst countries in the world in regards to the legal foundation for freedom of religion and belief,”

What does the Koran say about Jihad?

In Islam's 3 Holy Books: 97% references to jihad relate to holy war; while only 3% relate to inner struggle

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world." -- Sir Winston Churchill - circa 1899